“Nicolaus Copernicus, the 16th-century astronomer whose findings were condemned by the Roman Catholic Church as heretical, was reburied by Polish priests as a hero on Saturday, nearly 500 years after he was laid to rest in an unmarked grave.
His burial in a tomb in the cathedral where he once served as a church canon and doctor indicates how far the church has come in making peace with the scientist whose revolutionary theory that the Earth revolves around the Sun helped usher in the modern scientific age.
Copernicus, who lived from 1473 to 1543, died as a little-known astronomer working in what is now Poland, far from Europe’s centers of learning. He had spent years laboring in his free time developing his theory, which was later condemned as heretical by the church because it removed Earth and humanity from their central position in the universe.
His revolutionary model was based on complex mathematical calculations and his naked-eye observations of the heavens because the telescope had not yet been invented.
After his death, his remains rested in an unmarked grave beneath the floor of the cathedral in Frombork, northern Poland, the exact location unknown.”
Read more at Yahoo News
While I am ecstatic that such an important figure has finally got the recognition that he wanted in his lifetime, from the institutions he loved but that rejected him terribly, I do have a slight issue.
Call me pedantic, but on my visit to the wonderful Science Museum in London this saturday, I learnt something incredibly interesting.
The importance of Muslim scholars and their refinement of both astrological principles and theory, as well as their development of the process of empirical observation and reasoning (the scientific method) cannot be overstated.
In today’s turbulent world it is worth remembering the important contribution of muslims to science. Copernicus certainly got his ideas from the East. However, he was still a great and brave man.
The reason this is important? Well, history is written by the victors. We must not fall into that trap. I never learnt the names of any islamic scholars at school but I certainly know about Ptolemy, Aristotle, Plato, Newton, Galileo and Copernicus.
The deletion of Islamic influence from history only serves to increase the sense of disenfranchisement and separateness that fuels radicalism. It justifies the nonsense they tell each other – about western plans to oppress and eliminate Islam.
For the record, I speak as a rationalist and atheist (with a slight stubborn streak of agnosticism, only because you never know…)
Yes it is too bad the Muslims threw away their development of the process of empirical observation and reasoning. Much of that was absorbed from other cultures that Islam had overtaken. After a generation or two any innovation was damped out, except perhaps in Baghdad. But that was all destroyed by the Huns.
@Rob
In some respects, religion and science can be said to have the same roots – the desire to understand and explain the world around us.
When this challenge is taken seriously, amazing things can happen, such as the advances that you describe. I will also agree that they haven’t been credited as well as they could have been. But the fact that they are Muslim or Islamic shouldn’t matter (and if I understand your second post correctly, you would agree with me).
It is also plain to see what happens when people are satisfied with easy answers, and this is where religion and science are worlds apart.
Religion = Divide and Rule.
I’m sure Copernicus himself is thrilled by this turn of events.
I mean, what is the point?
@Rob: yes, you are right. What interested me was the way the complexities of their calendar, combined with the instructions of their holy book to ‘learn about the stars’, forced them to develop more accurate ways of describing the movement of celestial bodies and lead to the development of modern celestial mechanics. However, like many religions, the desire to understand and explore was replaced after several generations by a form of psychosis with obsessive compulsive aspects that is reinforced by the prospect of eternal damnation. Just like Christianity.
Many important western scientists were also devoted Christians. I think that a pervasive theocracy leaves each individual with very little choice about faith, moral philosophy and metaphysics.
What is now called Poland was then called … wait for it – Poland. Poland was actually the major central power at the time and Krakow was a major centre of learning.
Throwing stones at religion today because of what it did 500 years ago lacks a certain punch.
I agree that Islam culture of 1,000 years ago does not get the recognition it deserves.
@Rob said: ‘In some respects, religion and science can be said to have the same roots – the desire to understand and explain the world around us.’
This is from a text called Fides et Ratio written by the last pope in 1998:
‘Faith and reason are like two wings on which the human spirit rises to the contemplation of truth …’
RE: ‘divide and rule’. I rather see a desire to absorb and rule. Monotheism seems to abhor division.
Maybe …